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Lead

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lead¹

  • /ˈlɛd/
  • [ˈlɛd]

Sounds like led · Rhymes with -ɛd

Where it comes from

From Middle English led, leed, from Old English lēad (“lead”), from Proto-West Germanic *laud (“lead”), possibly borrowed from Proto-Celtic *ɸloudom, from Proto-Indo-European *plewd- (“to flow”).

Cognate with Scots leid, lede (“lead”), North Frisian lud, luad (“lead”), West Frisian lead (“lead”), Dutch lood (“lead”), Low German Lod (“solder, plummet”), German Lot (“solder, plummet, sounding line”), Swedish lod (“solder, plummet”), Icelandic lóð (“a plumb, weight”), Irish luaidhe (“lead”) Latin plumbum (“lead”), Finnish luoti (“bullet”). Doublet of loth. More at flow.

* (graphite in a pencil): Graphite was once believed to be a form of lead; see black lead and plumbago.

noun leads · ♄

  1. uncountable A heavy, pliable, inelastic metal element, having a bright, bluish color, but easily tarnished; both malleable and ductile, though with little tenacity. It is easily fusible, forms alloys with other metals, and is an ingredient of solder and type metal. Atomic number 82.
  2. countable A plummet or mass of lead attached to a line, used in sounding depth at sea or to estimate velocity in knots. Although I could distinctly see the bottom, yet, heaving the lead, I found the ship in fifteen fathoms.
  3. countable, uncountable A thin strip of type metal, used to separate lines of type in printing.
  4. uncountable Vertical space in advance of a row or between rows of text. Also known as leading. This copy has too much lead; I prefer less space between the lines.
  5. countable, uncountable Sheets or plates of lead used as a covering for roofs.
  6. countable A roof covered with lead sheets or terne plates. I would have the tower two stories, and goodly leads upon the top.
  7. countable A thin cylinder of graphite used in pencils.
  8. countable, slang, uncountable Bullets; ammunition. They pumped him full of lead.
  9. countable, in plural, uncountable X-ray protective clothing lined with lead. You must remember to wear your leads.

verb leads · leading · leaded · ♄

  1. transitive To cover, fill, or affect with lead. continuous firing leads the grooves of a rifle.
  2. historical, transitive To place leads between the lines of. to lead a page

lead²

  • /ˈliːd/
  • [ˈlɪi̯d]

Sounds like leed, lede, lied (“song”) · Rhymes with -iːd

Where it comes from

From Middle English leden, from Old English lǣdan (“to lead”), from Proto-West Germanic *laidijan, from Proto-Germanic *laidijaną (“to cause one to go, lead”), causative of Proto-Germanic *līþaną (“to go”), from Proto-Indo-European *leyt- (“to leave, die”).

Cognate with West Frisian liede (“to lead”), Dutch leiden (“to lead”), German leiten (“to lead”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål lede (“to lead”), Norwegian Nynorsk leia (“to lead”), Swedish leda (“to lead”), Faroese and Icelandic leiða (“to lead”). Related to Old English līþan (“to go, travel”).

verb leads · leading · led · lead

  1. transitive To guide or conduct with the hand, or by means of some physical contact connection. a father leads a child
  2. transitive To guide or conduct in a certain course, or to a certain place or end, by making the way known; to show the way, especially by going with or going in advance of; to guide somebody somewhere or to bring somebody somewhere by means of instructions. The guide was able to lead the tourists through the jungle safely.
  3. figuratively, transitive To direct; to counsel; to instruct. A good teacher should lead their students to the right answer.
  4. transitive To conduct or direct with authority; to have direction or charge of; to command, especially a military or business unit. to lead a political party
  5. transitive To draw or direct by influence, whether good or bad; to prevail on; to induce; to entice; to allure. to lead someone to a righteous cause
  6. transitive To influence towards a belief, a conclusion, etc. The evidence leads me to believe he is guilty.
  7. intransitive To guide or conduct, as by accompanying, going before, showing, influencing, directing with authority, etc.; to have precedence or preeminence; to be first or chief; — used in most of the senses of the transitive verb.
  8. transitive To go or to be in advance of; to precede; hence, to be foremost or chief among. the big sloop led the fleet of yachts;  the Guards led the attack;  Demosthenes leads the orators of all ages
  9. intransitive To proceed in front of others; to go first. The standard-bearers led and the rest of the marchers followed.
  10. intransitive To be more advanced in technology or business than others. It leads in the information technology sector.
  11. transitive To begin a game, round, or trick, with to lead trumps
  12. intransitive To be ahead of others, e.g., in a race.
  13. intransitive To have the highest interim score in a game.
  14. To step off base and move towards the next base. The batter always leads off base.
  15. To aim in front of a moving target, in order that the shot may hit the target as it passes.
  16. transitive To lead climb.
  17. intransitive To tend or reach in a certain spatial direction, or to a certain place. the path leads to the mill
  18. intransitive To be a cause of. gambling leads to other vices
  19. transitive, usually To live or experience (a particular way of life). That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life.
  20. Used in phrasal verbs: lead off, lead on, lead out, lead to (“be the cause of, bring about”), lead up, lead up to.
  21. misspelling Misspelling of led.led

noun leads · lede · leed

  1. countable The act of leading or conducting; guidance; direction, course to take the lead
  2. countable Precedence; advance position; also, the measure of precedence; the state of being ahead in a race; the highest score in an incomplete game. the white horse had the lead.
  3. UK, countable An insulated metallic wire for electrical devices and equipment.
  4. countable, uncountable The situation where a runner steps away from a base while waiting for the pitch to be thrown. The runner took his lead from first.
  5. uncountable The act or right of playing first in a game or round; the card suit, or piece, so played your partner has the lead
  6. countable, uncountable The main role in a play or film; the lead role. "You make moving pictures. In jungles and places." "That's me. And I've picked you for the lead in my next picture."
  7. countable, uncountable The actor who plays the main role; lead actor.
  8. countable, uncountable The person in charge of a project or a work shift etc. John is the development lead on this software product.
  9. countable A channel of open water in an ice field.
  10. countable A lode.
  11. countable, uncountable The course of a rope from end to end.
  12. countable, uncountable A rope, leather strap, or similar device with which to lead an animal; a leash
  13. countable, uncountable In a steam engine, the width of port opening which is uncovered by the valve, for the admission or release of steam, at the instant when the piston is at end of its stroke. Usage note: When used alone it means outside lead, or lead for the admission of steam. Inside lead refers to the release or exhaust.
  14. countable, uncountable The distance of haul, as from a cutting to an embankment.
  15. countable, uncountable The action of a tooth, such as a tooth of a wheel, in impelling another tooth or a pallet.
  16. countable, uncountable Hypothesis that has not been pursued The investigation stalled when all leads turned out to be dead ends.
  17. countable, uncountable Information obtained by a detective or police officer that allows him or her to discover further details about a crime or incident. The police have a couple of leads they will follow to solve the case.
  18. countable, uncountable Potential opportunity for a sale or transaction, a potential customer. Joe is a great addition to our sales team, he has numerous leads in the paper industry.
  19. countable, uncountable Information obtained by a news reporter about an issue or subject that allows him or her to discover more details.
  20. countable, uncountable The player who throws the first two rocks for a team.
  21. US, countable, uncountable The introductory paragraph or paragraphs of a newspaper, or a news or other type of article. (Sometimes spelled as lede for this usage to avoid ambiguity.)
  22. countable, uncountable An important news story that appears on the front page of a newspaper or at the beginning of a news broadcast
  23. countable, uncountable The axial distance a screw thread travels in one revolution. It is equal to the pitch times the number of starts.
  24. countable, uncountable In a barbershop quartet, the person who sings the melody, usually the second tenor.
  25. countable, uncountable The announcement by one voice part of a theme to be repeated by the other parts.
  26. countable, uncountable A mark or a short passage in one voice part, as of a canon, serving as a cue for the entrance of others.
  27. countable, uncountable A primary synth, often composed of square, sawtooth, triangle or sine waveforms.
  28. countable, uncountable The excess above a right angle in the angle between two consecutive cranks, as of a compound engine, on the same shaft.
  29. countable, uncountable The angle between the line joining the brushes of a continuous-current dynamo and the diameter symmetrical between the poles.
  30. countable, uncountable The advance of the current phase in an alternating circuit beyond that of the electromotive force producing it.

adjective lede · leed

  1. not comparable Foremost. The contestants are all tied; no one has the lead position.
  2. not comparable Main, principal, primary, first, chief, foremost. the lead guitarist in band

lead³

Where it comes from

Perhaps from a confusion or conflation with read, which has a single spelling for both past and present tenses, but has differing pronunciations in the same way as lead, i.e. the present's vowel is /i/, and the past's is /ɛ/.

See also red and redd, the obsolete spellings of read.

verb

  1. misspelling Misspelling of led.led

Lead⁴

proper noun

  1. A civil parish in North Yorkshire, England.
  2. A city in Lawrence County, South Dakota, United States.

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